Our friend Diane Gubin, President of Techexecpartners.com poses an interesting question in her newsletter. We thought we would post this and let you share. Given the current economic downturn, this is a buyer’s market for employers and as such you may be able to recruit more talented job candidates with greater skill sets. But you have to be bold and act now while quality candidates are in search of work.

The other thing, make sure to check them out with careful preemployment screening. By running a series of background checks, you can determine if you are recruiting a true value in your employment candidate or merely a discard. With the economic downturn, employers are using the recession as an excuse to get rid of their dead wood as well as, due to economic necessity, their more valued employees. So be sure to check themout before you hire.

From Diane–

WHY YOU SHOULD HIRE OVERQUALIFIED CANDIDATES!

With the economy rapidly plunging, there is a plethora of “overqualified” candidates available.

Overqualified can be defined as candidates who may have more experience and education than the position requires. These candidates are now willing to work in positions below their skill set at a lower market value. For example, we’re seeing chief financial officers now applying to work as accountants or financial analysts.

Some hiring managers s

Positive Aspects: Why You SHOULD hire overqualified candidates:

In today’s economy, there aren’t jobs available for candidates to move to. Many once healthy industries are now defunct. Candidates who make the transition to new firms say they are sincerely interested in stability and long-term success.

And candidates know that their compensation in prior positions has no bearing on what pay they may receive for a similar position in another firm. If a job is being outsourced, a candidate is more interested in maintaining a working career and a paycheck than quibbling over a salary differential, even if the difference is $20,000 or more. People are grateful for work.

We’re hearing that some companies have cut too many employees. This is an excellent time to hire and round out a team. This is a rare time when so many excellent people with strong skills and advanced degrees are immediately available.

Overqualified candidates are our neighbors. We want to keep people in our community employed. We can’t wait for the government and stimulus packages.

There are currently countless outstanding candidates for every open job. More people are in the process of losing their homes. They are eager for meaningful work and a paycheck. If you have a job opening, someone unemployed and available is waiting and ready to go to work for you today.

It was reported that Democratic Senator, Charles Schumer, voiced that many groups using FBI records do not have access to out-of-state background checks. These background checks include, especially, criminal records.

According to local television station 13Wham.com Schumer is proposing legislation that would give summer schools and daycare senators access to the FBI criminal database files. Schumer was speaking to the Boys and Girls Club. Apparently, the Boys and Girls Club is one of the first organization nationwide to do background checks on its employment candidates.

This is all a good idea, but frankly Corra Group and other reputable background searching companies have been providing background searches to youth groups and non-profit organizations for some time now. We provide everything from the nationwide criminal database search, that includes the sexual offenders registry, to county criminal and federal criminal records searches.

We conduct these searches for all sorts of youth groups, including day camps and sports organizations. We conduct them for religious schools and social services. So while we think Senator Schumer has offered up an excellent idea, we are a bit puzzled as to why the concept of background checks for employment candidates for youth groups, day camps, and the like, is such a novel idea. In fact, we would think that any youth group that does not order criminal records searches on its job candidates is being remiss. The sexual offenders registry alone is a vital necessity.

On most days, people wanting to work with children are reputable and without criminal records. With this economic downturn, I would think youth groups have a pick of viable candidates. But there is always the risk, and picking the wrong job candidate can prove embarrassing and costly, to say nothing of the damage that can be done to the children.

MVR’s or Motor Vehicle Driving Records are increasingly a must search for any preemployment screening program. The Driving License Report or DMV search is not only necessary for the trucking and transportation industry, but applies to every employment candidate who may be driving for the employer.

Additionally, the Motor Vehicle Driving Report (MVR) reveals behavior patterns beyond just someone’s driving habits. The MVR will reflect substance abuse, scofflaw habits, accidents, and personal responsibility issues. With the economy as it is and with employers needing to drill down further to determine the job candidates that will best fit into their environment, the DMV Driving Report is now an essential background check.

For the few extra dollars, an employer can save much in expense and aggravation.

For quite some time there was a common defense regarding the recruiting of undocumented workers. The refrain went something like, “Undocumented workers will do the jobs that most American citizens are unwilling to do.” That may have been the case before the economic downturn, but now with the recession in full tilt it is arguable whether laid off American citizens would turn their noses up at any work.

Meanwhile, federal crackdowns continue as public sentiment and, perhaps, economic necessity cause Federal officials to explore new levels of vigilance. According to the Los Angeles Times, Federal officials just notified 650 businesses around the country that they will be audited to check for their hiring illegal immigrants. Five hundred of those businesses are in Los Angeles alone. Rather than merely raid factories, the Obama administration has a new program to hold the employer’s responsible. the audits are part of that effort.

Any business that hires illegal immigrants is breaking the law, whether they do so wittingly or not. It is not our desire to take a position regarding the benefits or deficits related to hiring undocumented workers. But employers should bear in mind that hiring illegal immigrants can lead to severe penalties, including fines and plant closures and, possibly, the loss of the business license. This is no joke. Not should the public relations repurcussions be passed off lightly, what with so many legitimate employees out on the streets.

It is prudent for employers to run background checks to verify a worker’s legitimacy. The two most common forms of verification are the Social Security Trace and the I-9, which can be conducted electronically through E-Verify. To not conduct these background searches in this economic climate, especially, is a bad idea.